Muzaffarnagar boy beaten for one hour, says father; teacher claims video doctored

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh police has filed a case against Tripta Tyagi, the teacher seen provoking students to hit a muslim boy in a video viral on social media on Friday. The father of the child who was beaten by his classmates, allegedly on instructions of the teacher at Neha Public School in Khubapur, Muzzaffarnagar, claimed that the boy, seven, was “tortured for an hour”.

The father told the ANI, “My child is well but he is very scared. He was tortured by the teacher for one to two hours. When we raised the issue with her, she said we follow this rule here (school).” The video was shot on August 24 but went viral on social media on August 26 causing widespread outrage. Many social media user demanded Tyagi’s arrest and “#ArrestTriptaTyagi” or “ArrestTriptaTayagi” trended for hours.

Here’s what we know about the case so far.

Muzaffarnagar teacher

Tyagi has made her own statements to the media. In one, she claimed that the video was doctored. “I didn’t have any communal intentions. The parent of the child had asked me to be strict with the kid as he was not concentrating on studies,” she said. According to local reports, the police had verified the video before announcing they were taking action.

Tyagi told ANI that the video was edited and morphed. “I had said that mothers of ‘Mohammedan’ children shouldn’t visit their-in-laws at this time of year as exams are about to start. This affects the education of students,” she said. In the video only “Mohammedan” was kept and the rest was edited, she claimed.

#WATCH | "The video that was made viral was edited and cut, I had no such intentions…in our place, Hindus and Muslims stay with unity and we have more Muslim students in our school…there was pressure from the parents of the child to be strict with him. I am handicapped I can’t… pic.twitter.com/WYpbFGetik

— ANI (@ANI) August 26, 2023

In the viral video, she can be heard saying that she routinely encourages children to beat "Mohammedan" – Muslim – students in her class.

Tyagi has also said that the child was punished for not memorising a maths table of five. “He hadn’t learnt his homework. Since I am handicapped (sic) I asked the students to slap him,” she said clearly implying that corporal punishment is acceptable to her.

The UP education department – Basic Shiksha Adhikari – and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) promised action but have yet to take any, either against Tyagi or the school.

#ArrestTriptaTyagi: Outrage online

The video, which was recorded by the child’s cousin, has caused uproar on social media. Many celebrities and politicians have demanded action against the teacher.

Actor Renuka Shahane tweeted: “That vile teacher should be behind bars!”

That vile teacher should be behind bars! Instead, she might just get a national teacher's award for promoting national integration! Kafkaesque!! Cry, my beloved country ?

— Renuka Shahane (@renukash) August 25, 2023

Actor Prakash Raj called it the darkest side of humanity.

The darkest side of HUMANITY we are getting into.. arent you worried #justasking pic.twitter.com/i5ilnujEmo

— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) August 25, 2023

Several politicians attributed the bigotry displayed in the classrooms to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yogi Adityanath’s alleged anti-muslim stance.

Lok Sabha member Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted in Hindi, “The video from Muzaffarnagar where a teacher is asking her student to slap a Muslim boy is a product if last 9 years."

The video from Muzaffarnagar where a teacher is asking her students to slap a Muslim boy is a product of the last 9 years. The message being drilled into the minds of little children is that one can beat up & humiliate a Muslim without any repercussions.

The father of the…

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) August 26, 2023